State education dept to inquire into fake letters about bogus schools in Pune

Based on the letters impersonated as written by the school education ministry, the deputy director of education announced that three schools from the city were considered bogus. However, after the ministry clarified it did not send the letters, the education department has now ordered a probe

Letters sent by an unidentified person about bogus schools in the city caused a major embarrassment to the state education department, which has now asked for a probe after the authenticity of the letter came into question.

Out of three schools whose names were mentioned in the letters, two of them only run junior colleges. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Based on the letters impersonated as written by the school education ministry, the deputy director of education announced that three schools from the city were considered bogus. However, after the ministry clarified that letters were not released by it, the education department has now ordered a probe.

Audumbar Ukirde, deputy director of education, said, “We had received letters about three schools from the state ministry stating these schools have not taken No Objection Certificate (NOC) for running schools under Central Board of Secondary Education. However, later on, the ministry cleared that the letters which were received by the deputy director of education were ‘fake’ and the ministry has not issued any letter.”

“We have decided to investigate the case as we have noticed that there are discrepancies in many letters. Our officer will be visiting all the schools personally to check the NOC letters,” added Ukirde.

“Out of three schools whose names were mentioned in the letters, two of them only run junior colleges (Class 11 and 12) and not schools (Class 1 to 10). These colleges had raised doubts as to how their name appeared on the letters so now we will be preparing a report and sending it to the ministry about these colleges,” added Ukirde.

“The proposal of applying for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board by the school directly goes to the ministry and if the proposal is for the state board then it goes to the ministry via deputy director of education,” added Ukirde.

When the HT reporter visited two schools on Saturday, the principal of both schools echoed the same views.

“We run junior college and we don’t know how our name appeared in the letters. We are affiliated with the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education so why will we seek CBSE affiliation? We have not sent any proposal to the ministry,” they said.